(written by Islander)
Those of us who first came across the Italian death metal band Sonum through their 2021 EP Divide et Impera encountered a head-spinning array of wild musical adventures, a free-wheeling experimentation in which death metal was only one of many stylistic twists and turns. They followed that with their somewhat less genre-bending but still multi-faceted 2022 debut album Visceral Void Entropy, and now they’re returning again with their new full-length The Obscure Light Awaits, set for release on April 11th by the Dusktone label.
Since their last album, Sonum‘s lineup has dropped from five members to three, and by some measures their music has become more streamlined as well, certainly more carefully structured and cohesive.
But let us quickly banish any thought that Sonum have become “conventional”, in any sense of the word. This is an ingeniously elaborate and thoroughly dazzling album of progressive and atmospheric death metal (though its varying moods are quite dark), and heads that lean into it won’t stop spinning until it’s over — as you will learn for yourselves through our premiere today.
Sonum chose to open the album with a symphonic introduction that’s eerie, sinister, and ominous, which suits the moods within some of the following songs, but it doesn’t prepare listeners for the startling eruptive escapades of the first full song, “In This Void We Dwell“.
There, Sonum immediately cut loose with fast-paced and obliterating (but sharply executed) drumwork, the piercing strains of tremolo’d riffing that maniacally writhes and roils, bubbling bass lines, malicious snarls, and hair-raising screams.
Both the drumming and the fretwork change without warning. As the drummer moves from one electrifying frolic to another, the guitar shreds the senses with rapid bursts of screaming dissonance and boiling madness — but also without warning the drums vanish and the notes strangely glitter and chime.
When the volume swells again, Sonum continue veering from one direction to another, and in doing so they channel sensations of vicious violence, frantic fear, bewildering confusion, and asylum-strength insanity.
There’s so much to take in, the songwriting so “out there” and the execution so technically impressive, that it’s one of those experiences that will make a lot of people exclaim “what the fuck just happened?” And yet on just one listen you can already hear the ways in which Sonum stitch their mad machinations together so they don’t fly apart at the seams — including the recurrence of motifs that turn out to be bizarrely catchy.
And so, although it’s fair to say that the song reflects greater focus in the songcraft as compared to some of Sonum‘s earlier works, it also undermines any thought that they have settled into some kind of straight-forward death metal. The following songs cement that impression.
The rabid, jagged-edge vocals continually underscore the strains of their music that are savage and cruel, and there’s no denying that aspects of their assaults are in other ways definitely that, driven by obliterating percussive outbursts and dense, mauling riffage.
But on the other hand, Sonum continue favoring strains of demented dissonance rendered in piercing tones that prove to be as unsettling as they are peculiar. In “Famine“, for example (and this happens elsewhere too), the guitars dismally wail and miserably quiver, weave about in dismay like they might fall over at any moment, and sweep across the mind like massed mourners with outstretched hands. The song also includes a piano outro that’s entirely in keeping with its dark and desperate moods.
Elsewhere, the notes sparkle and symphonic strings dart; the music looms in displays of daunting grandeur and pulsates like fevers in the blood; the guitars vividly swirl and brazenly blaze, or churn in blood-lusting frenzies.
Sonum also prove they’re not sworn opponents of melodious harmonies — they do use them, but mostly as vehicles for channeling a variety of dark and mysterious moods rather than good cheer. Most prominently, “Beyond the Gate” is an instrumental of chamber-ensemble strings and deftly plucked acoustics that’s entrancing but sorrowful.
But bits and pieces of beguiling or beleaguered melody surface elsewhere too, often performed with classical instruments of varying kinds, providing a useful balance to all the discordance, which might become almost too much to bear if that’s all we had.
Meanwhile, everywhere, the tempos and drum patterns continue shifting constantly: bounding and galloping as well as blasting; tumbling and steadying; expelling popping martial beats and rocking away; but also frequently seeming off-kilter from what you might expect.
This kind of drumming (and permutations of the bone-shivering bass performances) would go far in a prog-metal band, and indeed (as suggested earlier) it wouldn’t be off-base to label the album progressive death metal (as well as atmospheric and even avant-garde death metal).
The thing that stands out most strongly about the album as a whole, straight through the phenomenal long closing track, which might be the most adventurous tour de force of them all, is that as dazzling, demented, and extremely dire as the songs often are, they’re cohesive.
They’re relentlessly elaborate and, it’s fair to say, even labyrinthine. Disturbingly dissonant minor-key tones and discombobulating beats greet the listener around many corners. As Dusktone accurately portrays, “It’s an exploration of contrasts – between the abstract and the visceral, the chaotic and the structured.” But the songs hold together beautifully well, a testimony to Sonum‘s thoughtfulness and care.
In closing, it’s worth repeating that the technical skill of the performers is jaw-dropping, and the music is produced in a way which makes that obvious, providing a striking clarity and evenness of mix that nevertheless manages not to diminish the recurrent savagery.
In further closing (!), this is a fantastic album, and one that’s likely to appeal strongly to fans of such bands as Gorguts (especially Gorguts), Morbid Angel, Execration, and Artificial Brain.
SONUM 2025:
Thomas Girardello – Vocals & Bass
Mirko “Minkio” Marchesini – Guitars
Francesco “Checco” Tresca – Drums
Dusktone will release the new album on vinyl LP, CD, and digital formats, and all are available for pre-order now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/the-obscure-light-awaits
https://www.dusktone.org/?s=sonum&id=113425&post_type=product
SONUM:
https://sonum.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sonum.deathmetal
https://www.instagram.com/sonum.deathmetal/